Left Behind
by Robotics-girl19
Summary: While talking with the General in "The San Lorenzo Job" Eliot remembers a time when they had to leave one of their own behind. Eliot/Parker brother/sister
1. Chapter 1

**I've got another story for you guys! It's another of my Eliot/Parker with a brother/sister type relationship. It makes it easier for me because I can't write romance to save my life, plus I think they are great as siblings. Enjoy!**

**I don't own Leverage.**

_**While talking with the General in "The San Lorenzo Job" Eliot remembers a time when they had to leave one of their own behind.**_

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><p>"These people you're with," the General said. "Would you ever leave any of them behind?" Eliot's breath hitched in his chest as he looked at Parker. <em>Never,<em> he thought. _Never again._

It had happened once before. Parker was deep undercover at the time and everything seemed to be going okay. Eliot was with Hardison, who was in more danger than anyone else on the rest of the team. He was the only one who could access the needed information on his laptop, but the mark's thugs were after him and Eliot needed to stay close. Hardison and Eliot were hiding out in a warehouse at the outskirts of town while Parker completed the finishing touches where she placed some incriminating documents on the mark's desk. One minute. Sixty seconds. That was all the time it took for everything to go wrong. One of Hardison's security cameras suddenly cut out, leaving them blind to the security guards' actions. In just a few moments, the mark's security descended on Parker. Before either Eliot or Hardison could budge, though, loud banging was heard at the warehouse door.

"Go," Eliot growled at Hardison, who sat frozen in his chair for a split second. "Hardison, go now!" Hardison snatched up his laptop and ran for the back door as Eliot followed closely behind, all the time guarding his back.

"Eliot! Hardison!" Nate yelled into the comm. from his position back at the apartment. "What's happening?" The two made it out to the van and Hardison started driving before Eliot had the chance to respond.

"We're okay, Nate. They found the warehouse, but we got out before they got in," he reported. "What about Parker?"

"She's hidden in the vents," Sophie said. "She should be safe for awhile, but she will need help getting out." Hardison immediately started speeding to the building Parker was in, but Parker started talking.

"Eliot, Hardison is still with you, right?" she coughed. It wasn't uncommon for the air ducts to be pretty dusty, and sometimes Parker's allergies would act up when it was especially bad.

"Yes, why?" He had a sinking feeling. The rest of the team had gone silent too.

"You can't bring him here. If they catch him, the whole con will be ruined and that family won't get their money back." Eliot opened his mouth to protest, but Parker continued. "I'll stay put until you drop Hardison off and come get me. Don't bring him here, Eliot." She coughed softly again.

"She's got a point Eliot," Nate added sadly. "Come back to the apartment with Hardison, and then get Parker." Eliot balled his fists as Hardison slowed to a near stop and pulled a u-turn. It felt so wrong to leave the thief behind! He was the _retrieval _specialist. Not the thug that leaves his team behind. He felt physically sick as they drove away and he heard Parker cough again.

They drove in silence for the rest of the trip, which lasted about twenty minutes. Eliot kept an eye out for any cars that were following them and wishing the whole time that they could turn around. He recognized intellectually that risking everything for one person was logical, but emotionally it felt so horrible. It was almost like leaving a puppy in the forest to be eaten by the wolves. She would cough occasionally, but otherwise made no sound. They had just walked into Nate's apartment and Hardison started decrypting and downloading the file.

"Parker?" Eliot demanded. "Are you still okay?"

"Yeah," she whispered back before coughing. Her coughs were more violent than they had been earlier. "I'm still in the vents, but I can hear them looking for me. They have guns. Help me, Eliot." Her voice drove daggers into his heart. She sounded like a scared little girl rather than the confident, crazy woman that she was. The time must have taken a toll on her confidence in her own safety.

"Don't worry; I'm coming," he said as he bolted back to the car and started speeding to her location. He wasn't ten minutes out, however, when he heard yelling and a crash over Parker's comm. There was an obvious struggle that overrode Eliot's demands for a report. Parker's screams were muted when the comm. was knocked from her ear. After that, it was only a few moments before all noise ceased. "Hardison, what's happening?" Eliot snapped into his own comm.

"I don't know, man!" Hardison was obviously scrambling to hack into the security cameras. After several tense minutes, Hardison gasped. "They took her. Parker is gone."

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><p><strong>Aww, poor girl! I bet Eliot feels terrible. Don't you want to know where she went and what happened to her? Review please!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's the next chapter and this one is longer! The funny thing is that all of these stories seem really long on Microsoft word until you break them into chapters and upload them. Then they turn out to be about half the length you thought they were. Oh well. I'm pretty proud of finishing this story so quickly. It was the actually all the reviews from my other E/P story, _On the mend,_ that motivated me to finish up this one. I've had it for weeks and actually wrote half of this chapter and most of the next one in a day. Reviews really are love! Enjoy!**

**I don't own Leverage.**

_**While talking with the General in "The San Lorenzo Job" Eliot remembers a time when they had to leave one of their own behind.**_

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><p>"What do you mean she's gone?" Eliot roared.<p>

"I don't know!" Hardison yelled back. "She is nowhere in the building and neither is the mark. The entire building has been evacuated."

"Well find her!" Eliot snarled. He continued to speed to where they had left their thief. Maybe he would be able to find clues pointing to her new location. _Or the dead men who took her…_ Eliot thought wryly.

Hardison kept searching, but he couldn't find any hint as to where she'd disappeared to. When Eliot arrived at the building, it was indeed deserted and Eliot couldn't find a single thing. Nate had disappeared into the bar again and Sophie had followed in a desperate attempt to keep him still sober enough to be useful to the team later. Eliot didn't speak on his way back but demanded an answer from Hardison the moment he stepped into the apartment.

"I've got nothing Eliot. I'm looking through everything. I'll find her, just give me some time." Eliot knew Hardison was doing his best, but he still went to his room and started beating the heck of one of his punching bags. It wasn't long before he had actually hit it so hard that it fell onto the floor. By the time he was done with it, it was in shreds.

Six hundred eighty three minutes. Eleven hours and 38 minutes. It took Hardison that long to locate Parker. She was being held in office building on the edge of a tiny town a hundred miles from their current location. The thugs were smuggling weapons through the building, but it was incredibly well hidden, at least on the internet. It was supposedly abandoned the year before. The moment Eliot got a destination he was out the door. The trip that should have taken an hour and a half took Eliot a little over forty five minutes. He paused just a few miles from the office building to collaborate a plan with Hardison.

Eliot slapped on a stupid smile and grabbed an empty pizza box from the back seat. He strode into the building and started talking happily to the receptionist. A moment later, the fire alarm started going off. He took advantage of the chaos and darted to the stairwell. Coming down from the second floor were three men that obviously had military training. It took Eliot only a few minutes to take them out, however, and he was soon up to the sixth floor where Parker was being held. He had to take out two more thugs on the sixth floor, but they went down easier than the three earlier. Hardison guided him through the comm. to the room where Parker was being kept. She was in the very back, but by now most of the people had evacuated the building because of the fire alarm, so Eliot made it there fairly quickly. He came to a locked door that looked like it led to a storage room. He dipped his shoulder and rammed it twice before it swung open. Inside the tiny room, Eliot saw what he expected, but not what he had hoped for.

Parker was sitting on the ground next to a metal shelf. She was tied to the shelf with zip ties that were cutting into her wrists. Her feet were tied together with ropes, but apparently it was tight enough that she couldn't wiggle out of them. Blood was slowly dripping down her arms and a cut near her forehead was still bleeding, but it didn't look like the cuts were too bad. Eliot was more concerned with the fact that she was currently unconscious and the dark purple bruises that were forming on her shoulder and legs. She was paler than normal and trembling slightly.

"Hardison, turn off the fire alarm, at least on the sixth floor. I don't want to scare her too much," Eliot ordered and a moment later, the blaring of the alarm stopped. He checked to make sure there weren't any thugs around before getting to his knees right beside Parker and trying to free her. He found a knife nearby and cut through the zip ties and the ropes easily. At the release of the restraints, Parker's eyes fluttered open.

"Hey, darlin'," Eliot said softly. Parker's eyes were glassy and she didn't seem to fully recognize Eliot. "I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" he asked gently. "Can you stand?" Parker didn't respond at first, but accepted his help up. She swayed unsteadily when she was upright so Eliot wrapped his arm around her to stabilize her. She flinched at his touch but didn't pull away too badly. "I'm not here to hurt you Parker," he reminded. She relaxed a little bit, but she was still tenser than he would have liked.

"Okay," she murmured. He led her out of the room, but had to give her even more support when her legs proved to be nearly too weak to hold her up. He couldn't pick her up though, because if he needed to fight anyone he couldn't be holding an injured thief. Hardison sent the elevator straight to the sixth floor and set it so it wouldn't open on any other floor.

"Where are we going?" Parker asked.

"I'm taking you away from here. We're going home," Eliot repeated. She furrowed her brow but didn't ask any more questions. He helped her into the elevator where she quickly sank to the ground. Eliot was alarmed at this but let her stay seated. He knelt down next to her and started asking questions, but he kept his eye on the elevator doors, just in case. "You okay, darlin'?" he asked. She nodded after a short delay. She was shaking more than earlier though, and Eliot worried she would slip back into unconsciousness again. "Keep your eyes open, Parker," he instructed gently. She did her best, but he could tell she was fading.

"Eliot," Hardison said through the comm. "I'm going to stop the elevator at the second floor. There are still a bunch of people on the main floor, so you need to go down the back stairs out to the parking lot. I've already unlocked one of the cars for you."

"Is there anyone else waiting for us between here and there?" Eliot asked.

"Not right now, but they are starting to figure out something else is up and some are coming back in," he replied. "How is she?" he asked hesitantly. Eliot looked at Parker again before responding.

"Not good. She'll live if I can get her out of here though." Hardison didn't respond to that; Eliot could tell he was just as worried about Parker as he was. The doors opened on the second floor just as five thugs came out of the stairwell. Eliot knew in an instant that he would have to get rid of them now or they would be trapped in the elevator forever. He jumped out of the elevator while he yelled at Hardison to take Parker up to the next level. She called out in surprise when the doors shut and the elevator started moving.

It took her up another two floors before stopping in between the levels so that the doors wouldn't open. Parker didn't know what she was going to do now. Then the reader board that usually displayed the floor number started acting weird. It already looked like it didn't come with the elevator when it was installed, maybe the last one had broken, and words started scrolling across its screen. She stared at it uncomprehendingly. Finally, the letters formed words in Parker's mind and when she concentrated, they made sense.

_Are you okay?_ The words read. She frowned. Was she hallucinating? _It's Hardison. Are you okay, Parker?_ It took longer than it should have for those words to process in her mind, but then she smiled. Hardison had hacked into the elevator floor displayer.

"I'm okay," Parker replied, even though they both knew it was untrue.

_I can see you but not hear you. Nod or shake your head._ Parker nodded that she was okay. _Eliot is still fighting the thugs._ Parker shrugged and leaned into the wall. The dizziness had abated some, but the grayness was still at the edge of her vision, ready to take her at any moment. More than anything, she was just _so tired._ Her eyes started to close of their own accord but she was brought back by the incessant beeping of the elevator. It was the same beep that elevators normally do when they arrive at a floor, but repeatedly and annoyingly.

_Stay awake_. Parker shook her head as best she could. She just couldn't do it anymore. It took most of her energy to hold her head up and concentrate long enough to read and comprehend the words.

_Parker! Open your eyes_. Hardison's plea went unread as the exhaustion caught up to Parker and she lost consciousness again.

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><p><strong>Review please! One more chapter to go!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**Last chapter! I actually wrote this entire chapter soon after the last one instead of taking weeks like normal. It's all the wonderful reviews I've been getting that make me write faster! Enjoy and don't forget to tell me what you think!**

**I don't own Leverage.**

_**While talking with the General in "The San Lorenzo Job" Eliot remembers a time when they had to leave one of their own behind.**_

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><p>"Eliot, hurry up. I lost Parker again," Hardison informed him over the comm. Eliot punched the final thug in the jaw and sent him tumbling to the ground.<p>

"What do you mean you lost her?" Eliot roared at Hardison, misinterpreting what he meant. "How could you let them take her again? Where is she now?" Hardison jumped at his initial reaction, then realized what he must be thinking.

"No, she's still in the elevator." Eliot let out a sigh of relief. "She lost consciousness. I'm bringing the elevator back down." The elevator started moving while Eliot kept his eye out for any other enemies. The elevator doors finally opened to show Parker lying on the ground.

"Parker," Eliot whispered as he approached her. She mumbled slightly at the sound of her name but otherwise didn't react. "C'mon darlin'. It's time to go," Eliot said as he scooped her up into his arms. She didn't respond much to his voice or being picked up but he could tell she was at least slightly aware of what was happening.

He hurried out the back door as quickly as he could. Eliot knew that more thugs were swarming into the building with every passing minute and he wouldn't be able to protect Parker from all of them.

When he got down into the back parking lot, Hardison flashed the lights on one of the sports cars. Eliot ran to the passenger door and through it open before slipping Parker into the seat. He buckled her in before getting into the driver seat himself and turning the car on.

Just as he was pulling out, the thugs came pouring out of the back door he had just exited. They pulled out their guns and started firing at the car but Eliot had it out of range and on the main road before any of their bullets hit their target.

"Are you okay?" Hardison asked frantically. Eliot could hear Nate and Sophie breathing over Hardison's shoulder. Apparently they had returned from the bar.

"We're fine." Then he amended his statement. "Well, we didn't get hit. Parker is still unconscious." He glanced at her. "She's breathing fine. I think she might just be exhausted."

"Okay, get her back here and we can figure everything out." Nate had finally stepped in to try to organize everything. So much had happened and Eliot knew they all needed a break after this particularly challenging job. It still amazed him that so much could go so wrong in sixty seconds.

Parker still hadn't stirred when he pulled into the parking lot outside Nate's apartment. Eliot scooped her up and took her inside where the other three were waiting anxiously. As soon as he set foot inside the apartment, all three started asking questions.

"What took so long?" Nate.

"Are you okay?" Sophie.

"How is Parker?" Hardison.

"Guys," Eliot said when then they all stopped chattering away. "She'll be fine. She's exhausted. Let me take care of her and then we can see how she's doing." With that, Eliot set her down on the couch. She finally stirred as he stretched her legs out. Eliot knelt on the floor by her head. "Hey Parker," he called softly. Her eyes opened and he smiled. She returned the smile and lifted her head to look around the apartment.

Nate had already retreated downstairs for a drink and Sophie had followed to make sure he didn't get too drunk. Hardison was hovering anxiously in the kitchen. He was trying to look like he was on his laptop but both the thief and the hitter knew he wasn't doing anything more consuming than minesweeper. "How are you feeling, darlin'?"

"Sleepy," was her first reply. He laughed.

"Well, that's not good, because I think you might have a concussion." Her face fell.

"Oh. What does that mean for me then?"

"Well, it means that I need to get some food in you and then you get to tell me all about how to break into the new museum they're building in Philadelphia," he said with a smile. At this, her expression brightened considerably.

Eliot knew that would keep her awake and aware for awhile. Since she had been fine after sleeping earlier, he knew it probably wasn't such a big deal for her to stay awake now, but he didn't want to risk it now that she was in safe hands again. When she was still in danger, he had wanted her to be as relaxed as possible so she wouldn't hurt herself while trying to do something stupid.

"You stay here," he instructed gently, knowing that she wouldn't have left anyway, but enjoying her smile that came from his unneeded command. He headed towards the kitchen and let Hardison take his place by her side. As he made Parker some food, he watched from afar as Hardison struggled through explaining how scared he was for her. Then Parker tried to reply as best she could, but her side didn't go much better. In the end, they both seemed to understand each other, so Eliot figured they would be fine.

He brought Parker's food to her and then checked her injuries while she ate. He happily declared that they were only bruises and she had actually avoided breaking anything. Besides the cut on her head, which he cleaned, and the concussion, she had actually escaped all of the injuries he had been expecting her to have.

Even with Parker healing up nicely, though, he vowed at that moment to never leave any part of his team behind again.

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><p>"<em>These people you're with," the General said. "Would you ever leave any of them behind?" Eliot's breath hitched in his chest as he looked at Parker and the memories came flooding back. 'Never,' he thought. 'Never again.'<em>

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><p><strong> <strong>When I saw Eliot's expression in the San Lorenzo Job, I knew there was so much more to that question. And this little story basically wrote itself...often at midnight when I was trying to fall asleep... <strong>I hope you enjoyed it! Reviews please?**


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